New regulations in China tightening controls on P2P lenders will now require P2P lenders to partner with a custodian bank; Chinese banks are not eagerly partnering with the alternative lenders as fraud has been rampant in the industry; less than 5% of the country’s 2,534 P2P lenders currently have a partnership with a custodian; custodians will add another layer of authentication for the P2P lending industry since they have high standards for money transfer and safekeeping; currently none of China’s big four banks have partnered with P2P lenders for custodian services; smaller banks are getting involved and bank to platform relationships are taking on various forms. Source
